12th Nov 08

sad book

I have to say, when I got Before I Die- Argh, Simon! Links!! I DO miss them! in a goody bag, I was a bit cynical about it. Well, it's called 'Before I Die', for goodness' sake. It's about a teenager dying of cancer. Every single quote on the back is about how much this book would make you howl, rend your garments, tear your hair out with delightful grief etc.

So I did feel a bit guilty sitting down to read it. Why? After all, if I want to be scared I'll happily sit down with James Herbert, if I want to laugh, with Charlie Brooker. Books do have a purpose after all.

And it's not as if it's a true story. True life misery lit- the 'Boy Called Its' and 'No Daddy No' and their myriad offspring- have colonised the shelves for years. (Bookshops don't call them 'misery lit', they call them, uh, 'painful lives'). Those I really don't enjoy; they're graphic and uncomfortable and I'm not sure of the appeal. Perhaps it's along the lines of, well, I'm not exactly sure how I'm doing as a parent, but hey at least I've never chained them naked to a kennel in the snow and made them eat paint.

Nonetheless, taking vicarious cathartic pleasure in the death of a child, particularly when, like most people, I know a family this exact thing happened to, and it was the worst thing in the world, just felt wrong somehow.

The book does work though. I wasn't sure at first. Tess is exceptionally bold and brave; her boyfriend, Adam, too good and romantic to be true.

The final third, however, is extraordinary. Without giving spoilers, from the moment she finds out something about Adam that makes him not quite so perfect, all the way to the inevitable end is beautifully, skilfully handled. I had to stay up late, and did indeed cry big gouts of noisy tears. But I can do that easily; the book does deserve them too.

Hmm, no links. I wonder if I can put up a picture of the baby's new haircut, just because I like looking at it.

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7th Nov 08

Overlooked

That's a funny one, when I was writing the other day about what I'd picked up after The Road (OH, no links today. Bum. It's very temperamental this site. Oh well, as long as it has paragraph breaks I guess we'll struggle on). Anyway, I checked back on my bedside table and realised I had completely forgotten I'd also read The Believers by Zoe Heller. Not that it's unusual for me to forget I've read a book- in fact, it's not even unusual for me to get three quarters of the way through a book before realising I've read it before- but given that it was such a long awaited publication- the follow-up to the extraordinary, and hugely popular 'Notes on a Scandal'- it's definitely a surprise.

It's not a BAD book, of course. A lot of it is very funny. It's about an acerbic Manhattan jewish family- grumpy english mother, put-upon daughter, rebellious daughter, drug addicted son- coming to terms with their father's serious illness. But it just doesn't connect, even though it's well written and the characterisation is terrific. I've been trying to figure out what's up with it, and I reckon I've got it (ha ha, yes, mighty world-renowned prize-winning author Zoe Heller really should talk to me about these things, etc).

It's too short. This is a family saga. There's plenty of life in the siblings, their partners, their lives, the parent's lives, the parent's friends- we find out the father has been this famous radical, but we never see any of it in action or discover much about how he ran his life. It's about 280 pages of mildly diverting fiction. It should have been 800 pages of utterly engrossing American life; generations handing on guilt and misery and laughter and love. Think of Philip Hensher's wonderful The Northern Clemency, which just missed out on the Booker. He follows two families through years and years and years, giving you a huge context and sense of how their triumphs and disasters give meaning to their lives. Heller's book is a sketch of the magnificent book it could have been. In my exceedingly humble opinion of course.

I've just placed a huge order with amazon as well as picking up some freebies whilst appearing on BBC4s 'The Book Quiz' where, if you tune in in January, you can watch me sitting and smiling politely whilst the ridiculously clever Michael Gove MP shouts out all the answers, so I am feeling comfortably set up for books at the moment. On the bedside table: The Black Swan, which is fascinating but infuriatingly written so far (even though he's obviously right), and Before I Die, which I am hoping makes me cry big cathartic sobs- it's the story of a terminally ill teenager, so why else would I read it? It's well done too so far.

But now, I'm going to print my favourite piece of writing of the year, by some way. I was going to link to it, but no links today. Ah well, just call it a long blog. I've just ordered his book too which was stupid, it'll be out of stock for weeks. Publishing's smartest man, Jamie Byng at Canongate, signed him up two years ago. Now THAT was smart.

I made my three year old watch the entire speech. At the end of it I said, 'And that's the very important thing that happened yesterday.'

About an hour later I said, 'what was the important thing that happened yesterday?' and he said 'we had tuna pasta for supper'. And I hope he can always take the promise of this election for granted. Anyway, here it is:

"This election had many firsts and many stories that will be told for generations. But one that's on my mind tonight's about a woman who cast her ballot in Atlanta. She's a lot like the millions of others who stood in line to make their voice heard in this election except for one thing: Ann Nixon Cooper is 106 years old.

She was born just a generation past slavery; a time when there were no cars on the road or planes in the sky; when someone like her couldn't vote for two reasons -- because she was a woman and because of the color of her skin.

And tonight, I think about all that she's seen throughout her century in America -- the heartache and the hope; the struggle and the progress; the times we were told that we can't, and the people who pressed on with that American creed: Yes we can.

At a time when women's voices were silenced and their hopes dismissed, she lived to see them stand up and speak out and reach for the ballot. Yes we can.

When there was despair in the dust bowl and depression across the land, she saw a nation conquer fear itself with a New Deal, new jobs, a new sense of common purpose. Yes we can.

When the bombs fell on our harbor and tyranny threatened the world, she was there to witness a generation rise to greatness and a democracy was saved. Yes we can.

She was there for the buses in Montgomery, the hoses in Birmingham, a bridge in Selma, and a preacher from Atlanta who told a people that "We Shall Overcome." Yes we can.

A man touched down on the moon, a wall came down in Berlin, a world was connected by our own science and imagination.

And this year, in this election, she touched her finger to a screen, and cast her vote, because after 106 years in America, through the best of times and the darkest of hours, she knows how America can change.

Yes we can."

And lets just try for a little link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jjXyqcx-mYY

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3rd November

Follow up

It's hard to follow up a book that knocks your socks off. Anything else can seem like pastels after oils. So I think I made a good choice with the (co-incidentally titled)Road Home , by Rose Tremain.

She's a really interesting writer, Rose Tremain. She never writes the same book twice. There's Restoration, which is a tremendous historical tale about a doctor at the court of Charles II, then The Way I Found Her, which is about a teenage boy becoming obsessed with his neighbour in Paris, and The Road Home is about polish immigrants in London. If you read her work without knowing the author you might not connect it at all, although there is a certain rigorous clarity she brings to her writing gives the writing muscularity whilst making it look simple. I doubt it is.

******SPOILER WARNING*******

I was a bit worried about The Road Home. After horrible scraping-a-living novels likeA Fine Balance- don't get me wrong, A Fine Balance is a wonderful, wonderful book  full of life and humanity, and I would urge everyone to read it, but God, it is depressing- and of course The Road itself, I wasn't really ready for poor Lev to be despised and disappointed by the horrible, self-obsessed London bourgeoisie like me. But my expectations were completely confounded. Lev finds warmth, kindness, success and setbacks and the ending is just wonderful. It was just the right book to choose, I was very lucky.

END SPOILER

Now I am failing to get along with The Secret Scripture by Sebastian Barry, which is annoying, as it was Booker nominated. I should persevere probably, but it's feeling like work. It's about a hundred year old woman in a mental hospital and her doctor and lots of Irish history and I'm finding my attention ungripped. Perhaps it's too soon after the amazing The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox by Maggie O'Farrell, which was also about an old woman abandoned in a closing-down asylum, but utterly gripping, personal and heartbreaking. Maggie & I were discussing baby names recently (we're both due next year) and we did talk about what a beautiful name Esmé is and what a shame Maggie couldn't call a beautiful baby girl after a totally tragic and upsetting character she totally made up.

It's true that actually. I keep having male children but I've used up all the names I like on romantic heros down the years. It would feel a bit icky to pass them on. So, I will have no Fraser, no Finn, no Angus, no Addison, no John...

Ooh, last.fm is great. It just decided to play me some Dolly Parton. Just right for a rainy Monday morning. Have a good week!

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